The British Government and Jihad

Last updated
The British Government and Jihad
Title Page of 'British Government and Jihad'-1900.jpg
Author Mirza Ghulam Ahmad
Publication date
22 May 1900

The British Government and Jihad (Urdu:Government Angrezi Aur Jihad) is a book written in 1900 by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, the founder of the Ahmadiyya movement in Islam. An alternative title is the True Meaning of Jihad . It was published on 22 May 1900 [1] [2] and was translated into English in 2006, by Islam International Publications. [3]

Contents

The founder of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat used the Qur'an and the Ahadith (sayings) of the Islamic prophet Muhammad to explain his view of the Islamic concept of jihad and says that Muhammad resorted to defensive war only after suffering thirteen years of brutal oppression. Divine permission to retaliate was granted for the specific purpose of self-defense, to punish aggressors, and to uphold freedom of conscience. He also said that the command to fight and retaliate was for that specific condition in which the early Muslims found themselves.

Claims to be the Messiah and Mahdi

At the end of the booklet, Ahmad said that he was the promised Messiah and Mahdi:

I also have been given the help of the Holy Spirit. The same Mighty and Holy God Who

has descended upon me appeared to all Prophets. He appeared to Moses at Sinai, to Jesus at Mount Seir, and He shined forth on the Holy Prophet (may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) at Mount Paran. He has communicated with me and said to me:

“I am the Highest Being for the worship of Whom all Prophets were sent. I alone am the Creator and Possessor and there is none like Me. I am not subject to birth or death. I have been informed that prevailing Christian beliefs such as Trinity and Atonement are all human errors in contravention of God’s real teachings. God has directly informed me with His own living word. If you confront difficulties, and people ask how they might know that you are from God, tell them that heavenly signs are my witness, my prayers are answered, and I am informed of what is yet to come. Hidden mysteries, known only to God, are revealed to me

before they are manifest publicly.(p. 37)

"Did this age not need the avatar [second coming] of Jesus the Messiah? Of course it did. Currently, millions of Muslims are ready to kill other people under the pretense of jihad. Indeed, some are unable to truly love a benevolent government even while living under its protection. They are unable to reach the highest levels of sympathy, and cannot cleanse themselves of affectation and pretence. There was therefore a dire need for the avatar of the Messiah. So I am that very promised avatar, who has been sent in the spiritual likeness, personality and temperament of Jesus the Messiah". (p. 33)

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Messiah</span> Saviour or liberator of a group of people

In Abrahamic religions, a messiah or messias is a saviour or liberator of a group of people. The concepts of mashiach, messianism, and of a Messianic Age originated in Judaism, and in the Hebrew Bible, in which a mashiach is a king or High Priest traditionally anointed with holy anointing oil.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mirza Ghulam Ahmad</span> Indian religious leader (1835–1908)

Mirza Ghulam Ahmad was an Indian religious leader and the founder of the Ahmadiyya movement in Islam. He claimed to have been divinely appointed as the promised Messiah and Mahdī—which is the metaphorical second-coming of Jesus (mathīl-iʿIsā), in fulfillment of the Islamic prophecies regarding the end times, as well as the Mujaddid of the 14th Islamic century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jesus in Ahmadiyya Islam</span>

Ahmadiyya considers Jesus (ʿĪsā) as a mortal man, entirely human, and a prophet of God born to the Virgin Mary (Maryam). Jesus is understood to have survived the crucifixion based on the account of the canonical Gospels, the Qurʾān, hadith literature, and revelations to Mirza Ghulam Ahmad. Having delivered his message to the Israelites in Judea, Jesus is understood to have emigrated eastward to escape persecution from Judea and to have further spread his message to the Lost Tribes of Israel. In Ahmadiyya Islam, Jesus is thought to have died a natural death in India. Jesus lived to old age and later died in Srinagar, Kashmir, and his tomb is presently located at the Roza Bal shrine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement</span> Separatist group within the Ahmadiyya movement

The Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement for the Propagation of Islam, is a separatist group within the Ahmadiyya movement that formed in 1914 as a result of ideological and administrative differences following the demise of Hakim Nur-ud-Din, the first Caliph after Mirza Ghulam Ahmad. Members of the Lahore Ahmadiyya movement are referred to by the majority group as ghayr mubāyi'īn and are also known colloquially as Lahori Ahmadis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ahmadiyya Caliphate</span> Leadership of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community

The Ahmadiyya Caliphate is a non-political caliphate established on May 27, 1908, following the death of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, the founder of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, who claimed to be a Prophet, a Messenger, the promised Messiah and Mahdi, the expected redeemer awaited by Muslims. It is believed by Ahmadis to be the re-establishment of the Rashidun Caliphate that commenced following the death of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. The caliphs are entitled Khalīfatul Masīh, sometimes simply referred to as Khalifa. The caliph is the elected spiritual and organizational leader of the worldwide Ahmadiyya Muslim Community and is the successor of Ghulam Ahmad. He is believed by the Community to be divinely ordained and is also referred to by its members as Amir al-Mu'minin and Imam Jama'at. The 5th and current Caliph of the Messiah of the Ahmadiyya Community is Mirza Masroor Ahmad.

<i>Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya</i>

Al-Barāhīn al-Ahmadīyyah 'alā Haqīqatu Kitāb Allāh al-Qur'ān wa'n-Nabūwwatu al-Muhammadīyyah is a five-part book written by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, the founder of the Ahmadiyya Movement. The first two parts were published in 1880 CE, the third volume was published in 1882, the fourth volume in 1884 and the fifth volume in 1905. In writing the book, Ghulam Ahmad sought to rejuvenate Islam by arguing for the validity of its principles and vindicating its teachings in response to Christian and Hindu polemics against Islam as well as atheistic philosophies. In this context, a significant portion of the subject matter of the book is dedicated to the defence of Islam as a whole against the criticism of Muhammad, the Qur'an and Islam that was raised in the 18th and 19th centuries predominantly by Christian missionaries and Hindu revivalists.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Al-Masih ad-Dajjal</span> Islamic eschatological figure

Al-Masih ad-Dajjal, otherwise referred to simply as the Dajjal, is an evil figure in Islamic eschatology who will pretend to be the promised Messiah and later claim to be God, appearing before the Day of Judgment according to the Islamic eschatological narrative. The word Dajjal is not mentioned in the Quran, but he is mentioned and described in the Hadith. Corresponding to the Antichrist in Christianity, the Dajjal is said to emerge out in the East, although the specific location varies among the various sources.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mirza Basheer-ud-Din Mahmood Ahmad</span> Ahmadiyya religious leader (1889–1965)

Mirza Basheer-ud-Din Mahmood Ahmad was the second caliph, leader of the worldwide Ahmadiyya Muslim Community and the eldest son of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad from his second wife, Nusrat Jahan Begum. He was elected as the second successor of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad on 14 March 1914 at the age of 25, the day after the death of his predecessor Hakim Nur-ud-Din.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hakeem Noor-ud-Din</span> Caliph of the Ahmadiyya

Hakeem Noor-ud-Din was a close companion of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, the founder of the Ahmadiyya Movement, and his first successor and first Ahmadiyya caliph since 27 May 1908.

Seal of the Prophets is a title used in the Qur'an and by Muslims to designate the Islamic prophet Muhammad as the last of the prophets sent by God.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din</span>

Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din was a prominent figure of the early Ahmadiyya movement and the author of numerous works about Islam.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prophethood (Ahmadiyya)</span>

In Ahmadiyya theology, the view on the Prophets of God differs significantly from Mainstream Islam. The main difference centres on the Quranic term Khatam an-Nabiyyin with reference to Muhammad which is understood by Ahmadis in terms of perfection and testification of prophethood instead of chronological finality. Accordingly, Muhammad is held to be the last prophet to deliver a religious law to humanity in the form of the Quran whose teachings embody a perfected and universal message. Although, in principle, prophets can appear within Islam but they must be non-lawbearing prophets dependent upon the sharia of Muhammad. Their prophethood is reflective of that of Muhammad, that is, within his Seal; and their role is merely that of reviving and purifying the faith. They cannot be prophets in their own right and cannot change, add to or subtract from the religious law of Islam. As such, Ahmadis, regard their founder Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (1835–1908) as a subordinate prophet who appeared as the promised Messiah and Mahdi in accordance with Islam's eschatological prophecies. In contrast to mainstream Muslims who believe Jesus was raised to heaven and one who would return himself towards the end of time, Ahmadis believe Jesus to have died a natural death and view the coming of such an independent, Israelite prophet to amount to breaking the Seal of Prophethood.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yuz Asaf</span>

Youza Asaf, Youza Asaph, Youza Asouph, Yuz Asaf, Yuzu Asaf, Yuzu Asif, or Yuzasaf, are Arabic and Urdu variations of the name Josaphat, and are primarily connected with Christianized and Islamized versions of the life of the Buddha found in the legend of Barlaam and Josaphat.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">White Minaret</span> Historic site in Punjab, India

The White Minaret is a stone minaret beside the Aqsa Mosque in Qadian, Punjab. It was constructed under the direction of the Indian religious leader Mirza Ghulam Ahmad. It serves as a lighthouse symbolising the ultimate pre-eminence of Islam.

Noor-ul-Haq is a two-part Arabic book written by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, the founder of the Ahmadiyya Movement in 1894. It consists of both prose and poetry. The first part was written in refutation of a book written by Padre Imad ud-Din Lahiz, a Christian preacher who had apostatised from Islam. The second part was written with regards to the solar and lunar eclipses which took place in 1894. With the publication of the book Ghulam Ahmad issued an advertisement with a reward of 5,000 rupees to anyone who could produce its like in terms of literary style.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ahmadiyya</span> Messianic movement within Islam

Ahmadiyya, officially the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama'at (AMJ) is an Islamic messianic movement originating in British India in the late 19th century. It was founded by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (1835–1908), who said he had been divinely appointed as both the Promised Mahdi and Messiah expected by Muslims to appear towards the end times and bring about, by peaceful means, the final triumph of Islam; as well as to embody, in this capacity, the expected eschatological figure of other major religious traditions. Adherents of the Ahmadiyya—a term adopted expressly in reference to Muhammad's alternative name Aḥmad—are known as Ahmadi Muslims or simply Ahmadis.

Abū Sayyid Muḥammad Ḥusayn Baṭālvī (c.1840-1920) was an Indian Islamic scholar of the Ahl-i Hadith movement during the late 19th and early 20th-century in British India. A native of Batala in the Punjab, he became a student of Syed Nazir Husain Dehlawi and is considered one of the founders of the Ahl-i Hadith alongside Dehlawi and Siddiq Hasan Khan. Batalvi was the editor of the magazine Isha'atus Sunnah and is best known for being a major antagonist to Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, the founder of the Ahmadiyya movement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Will (1905 book)</span> 1905 book by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad

The Will is a work of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, who claimed to be the promised Messiah and Mahdi in Islam, the founder of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community. The Will was published on 24 December 1905.

Asmani Faislah is an Urdu book written in 1891 by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad who claimed to be the promised Messiah and Mahdi, Qadian India. The Founder of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama'at. This English translation has been published by the Islam International Publications Ltd (2006) 'Islamabad', Sheephatch Lane, Tilford, Surrey, GU10 2AQ, UK..

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ahmadiyya and other faiths</span>

The Ahmadiyya branch in Islam has relationships with a number of other religions. Ahmadiyya consider themselves to be Muslim, but are not regarded as Muslim by mainstream Islam. Mainstream Muslim branches refer to the Ahmadiyya branch by the religious slur Qadiani, and to their beliefs as Qadianism a name based on Qadian, the small town in India's Punjab region where the founder of Ahmadiyya, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad was born.

References

  1. "The British Government and Jihad". Alsilam.
  2. "The Ahmadiyya Jama'at: a persecuted sect". American Chronicle. Retrieved 15 October 2010.
  3. The British Government and Jihad, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (1900)